Yakutia’s glaciers shrink in height by 70 percent in the last fifty years

Over the past half century, Yakutia's glaciers have shrank by 70 percent in height, the TASS news agencyreported, citing Alexei Galanin, DSc in Geography, Principal Research Associate at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Since 1957, around the start of global warming, the height of mountain glaciers in Yakutia shrank by 70 percent and their ground area, by nearly 40 percent. Over the past ten years, glaciers have been melting faster: by two meters per year," the scientist said. According to Galanin, the most ancient layers of glaciers, which were formed up to 2,000 years ago, have emerged onto the surface. And there is no glacier growth.

Galanin believes that such rapid ice melting may substantially increase the depth of the rivers of Yakutia. "Generally, climate change is less dangerous for Yakutia than for other regions, as the republic retains balance due to permafrost," he added.

Viktor Shepelev, a member of the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, DSc in Geology and Minerals, thinks climate change has a cyclical nature. He believes global warming will continue from 2017 until the 2020s, and will again be replaced by a cold spell before the 2050s-2060s.